Sir Thomas Acland, 7th Baronet (1722-85), was the son of Sir Hugh Acland, 6th Baronet. In 1745 he married Elizabeth Dyke, the daughter and heir of Thomas Dyke of Tetton, Somerset. At this time he took the additional name of Dyke. Sir Thomas served as MP for Devon in 1746-47, and Somerset in 1767-68, as well as being the High Sherriff of Somerset in 1751-52.

The Killerton estate had been in the ownership of the Acland family since the early seventeenth century, but the house and park were not planned until the 1770s, by Sir Thomas Acland Dyke. There had been an older house, although it was completely rebuilt in the 1770s. According to Pevsner all that survives of this older structure is a date stone of 1680. Robert Adam's designs for the house at Killerton, as well as designs by James Wyatt (1746-1813), were rejected in favour of those by John Johnson (1732-1814), and the house was erected in 1778-79. Although the house has been altered since its construction in the 1770s, the estate remained in the ownership of the Acland family until 1944, when it was given to the National Trust.